The invention relates in general to article transferring devices and in particular to a method and a machine for automatically transferring pantyhose, stocking and sock articles from a toe sewing machine to a drawing machine.
A device is known from the European patent No. 057.055 for the transfer of pantyhose articles from a horizontal-axis carrousel-type toe sewing machine supplied with pairs of horizontal tubes to a vertical-axis carrousel-type drawing machine supplied with pairs of horizontal dial-like arranged flat shapes which are provided of thermal resistors and are constructed in the form of two hinged elements to allow their book-like closing. The machines are mutually positioned so that the loading station of the drawing machine is opposite to the unloading station of the toe sewing machine, and a pair of shapes of one machine are coplanar and aligned with a pair of tubes of the other.
The very transfer device includes a carriage which is movable horizontally and alternately between stations of the two machines and is provided with hooks for the push-operated engagement of the elastic edge of the pantyhose to be transferred. The pantyhose bodice, during the travel of the carriage towards the drawing machine, is firstly overturned and then transferred to fit over the corresponding pair of shapes of the drawing machine. Such a transfer device has the drawback of imparting a slow work pace due to the idle stroke of the carriage conveyor and because it includes a rigid interaction system between the toe sewing machine and the drawing machine, so that the stopping of one of the machines brings about the inevitable stopping of the other, thereby drastically reducing the efficiency of the whole system.